Wildcats Fall in Home Opener to Penn State

Friday, March 14

Evanston, Ill.

3 p.m. CT

Northwestern

7-9, 0-1

Penn State

13-3, 3-1

Penn State

Northwestern

Photo by: Henry Frieman/Northwestern Athletics

Wildcats Fall in Home Opener to Penn State

3/14/2025 7:52:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern dropped its Big Ten opener on Friday afternoon 11-2 to Penn State at Rocky and Berenice Miller Park.

In the top of the fourth, Penn State (13-3, 3-1 Big Ten) grabbed an early lead on a solo home run by INF Joe Jaconski, his third of the season. Later that same inning, PSU doubled its lead when OF Cohl Mercado reached on a fielder's choice, scoring UTL Jack Porter to make it 2-0 in favor of the visitors.

PSU continued to add on in the top of the fifth. OF Paxton Kling led off the inning with a solo home run, his eighth of the season. After a walk, Porter hit a two-run home run to extend the PSU lead to 5-0. With two outs in the inning, UTL Jesse Jaconski doubled to left field, scoring INF Cole Wagner to make it 6-0 in favor of the Nittany Lions.

The Nittany Lions added three runs on four hits in the seventh to tack on. Mercado recorded his second RBI of the day with a base hit, scoring Porter to extend the lead to 7-0, and Kling collected a pair of RBI to bring his total to three on the afternoon and extending the advantage to nine.

Jesse Jaconski continued his standout day at the plate in the eighth with a two-run triple, putting PSU up 11-0.

Northwestern (7-9, 0-1 Big Ten) got on the board in the bottom of the eighth on a double by INF Owen McElfatrick, scoring OF Jack Lausch and added another on an RBI groundout by OF Jackson Freeman, scoring UTL Tyler Ganus to make it 11-2.

LHP Crawford Wade (1-3) allowed six runs, all earned, on nine hits, walking one, hitting three batters, and striking out three in 4.2 innings of work.

LHP Ryan DeSanto (4-0) tossed 5.0 shutout innings, allowing just one hit, and fanning five Wildcats.

Northwestern and Penn State will close out the series with a Saturday doubleheader, beginning at 11 a.m. CT. Both games of the twinbill will be streamed on B1G+.